The Host
by bakuraxryou4everluv
Summary: Slight-AU Post-Series When Amane Bakura plays with an Ouija board, she accidently releases Yami Marik from the Shadow Realm, and dooms herself to be his new host. Meanwhile, her older brother Ryou Bakura, a boy who for most of his life was never himself, yearns to discover who he really is. But is he too wrapped in the past he could've had with the Spirit to truly be free?
1. The Man Who May Have Been Ryou Bakura

**Pairings: Ouijashipping (Amane Bakura x Yami no Malik) Later On**

**Ryou x Mystery :3**

**Rating: T (Rating may change, more of an Older Teen due to language, adult situations, etc.)**

**Genre: Drama/Hurt/Comfort**

** A/N: Ouijashipping is my original pairing, not to mention my favorite! ^_^ I've been wanting to write another fic for it for a while but couldn't think of what the plot would be. Then it hit me: Ouijashipping… Ouija Board… EUREKA!**

** TO CLEAR UP ANY CONFUSION! This is a slight AU fic where Amane is alive. She's been alive the whole time, just living away with her mother. This takes place about a month after Atem moved on and now that Ryou is an adult, Amane comes to live with him. Also, I've decided to give Ryou a lot of attention in this story and Ryou alone, because something I'm sure every Ryou fan girl has noticed, is that most of his appearances in the anime or manga, aren't really his own, its Yami Bakura in disguise. His friends don't even call him by his first name because they don't actually know him. So because of that, I wanted to give him his own plot in the story. Oh and one more thing about the story, since the first Yu-Gi-Oh anime and manga came out in the late nineties and the original run of Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters ended around 2004, I'm imagining this story takes place around those years. So in my mind, since Yu-Gi-Oh was always a little futuristic, the series took place 2001-2004 and this fanfiction takes place starting in the April of 2004, since this is when school starts in Japan. So without further ado, let the insanity ensue! **

* * *

**The Host**

**Chapter I**

**The Man Who May Have Been Ryou Bakura**

_ I only truly met him once, and he was so evil when I did. Yet I always felt I knew him, another side to him. He was the one who saved me in Battle City, he kept me in a soul room so as not to see his bloodshed, and he dominated me. That was him right? Right?!_

"_I'm the other part of you who's been hidden away, in the Millennium Ring."_

_If he was part of me, then I resembled him somehow right? He made me someone. Yes he did! S-so we never talked much, except for when we first met Yugi and the gang, and no he never asked me permission to use my body, never even warned me… We never debated in my head, I never saw his soul room, I never saw any of his mind… If I couldn't see his mind, was he really me? My alter ego. He had to! He-!_

"_I made it so you could play with your friends __**forever**__. It's what you wanted right?"_

_He-he did fulfill my wish. He hurt them yes, but he did take my one wish into consideration, didn't he? __**Didn't he?! **_

"_Big brother, you've been acting really weird lately."_

_**Amane.**_

"_H-how so Amane?"_

"_I don't know, you're just kinda off. Mama says it's from the move, but we're always moving and you've never acted like this, so what's wrong? I mean yesterday at the candy store was just, well I- big brother are you okay?"_

"…_We- we went to the candy store?"_

Ryou's hand was completely numb. It was like a metal glove encased the limb so he couldn't move or feel anything. He rolled over, trying to shake it out, berating himself for sleeping on his side again. He glanced over at his alarm clock.

3:15

He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes, allowing sleep to encase him…

…encase him.

…

…

…ENCASE HIM!

…

…

…Surely that was a few hours.

He opened one eye to take a quick peak at the alarm.

3:15, wait no, 3:16. It just changed. Good one minute of sleep, the next hours would come in no time!

…

…

…

…Who was he kidding?

He groaned as he sat up in bed, abandoning his quest for sleep. He reached over and flicked on the lamp on the nightstand and slipped out of bed. He wandered through his apartment, flicking on lights as he went, trying to find a more productive way to spend his insomnia then staring at the the television. Then again, it was so eerily quiet that that box was starting to seem more and more tempting. Why if the Spirit of the Ring was here then-

No.

No even if he was still possessed by the Spirit of the Ring it would be the same. The Spirit wouldn't talk to him or ease his loneliness; he'd just leave him unaccompanied, that is, if he'd even allow Ryou to be conscious right now. For the majority of ten years, Ryou hadn't been himself. He never learned who he was, what he liked, who he liked. He never experimented; he never dated, or even had a full crush. He never was able to decide for himself whether he liked studying or slacking, whether he preferred reading a book at home or out drinking at a bar. He spent most of his life locked up in a room inside his own head; he spent so much time there that when he actually was conscious in his own apartment, he didn't remember where the silverware was, he couldn't even remember what drawer his socks were in, or when he had organized them. It had all been the spirit, and yet they never conversed. He found this to be the most ironic; the Spirit was imitating a personality Ryou wasn't even sure he had.

The Spirit never abused him or praised him, he gained no pleasure from either, in fact he found any time he had to converse with his host more of a nuisance. Of course the spirit had never told him that, but Ryou could feel the semblance of those emotions himself. Or at least he thought he had. Even if the Spirit was here, Ryou would still be all alone in this empty apartment. They never talked or had fun or played games or even argued like Yugi and his spirit or Malik and his darker half did. They just coexisted, with two completely different goals, sometimes needing to manipulate the other to achieve their own. The Spirit never cared. Ryou was just a landlord who sometimes came by to collect the rent, only to be shunned away and locked in a box.

_No, no, Ryou stop!_ _Stop this now please!_

This was hurting him on far too many levels.

Without realizing it, Ryou found himself in the most unfamiliar room of his apartment, most unfamiliar because it was brand new. His father had always been quite good at gift-giving (save for one life-damning Millennium Ring), and Ryou's High School graduation gift had been no exception. His father had given him two keys to truly unlock the doors to his adulthood. Although not often, his father did come and live with him time and again during Ryou's adolescence in Domino, but when the albino graduated, his father gave Ryou his key to the apartment. It was all his and he was to do with his father's room as he wished for he now lived completely by himself. This in retrospect wasn't all too different from before, only now it house was a bit emptier and he had to pay his own rent, but it was a flattering responsibility and sentiment nonetheless. The second key had been to a 1998 Toyota Hiace van which Ryou absolutely loved.

But now that he had free reign of the apartment and all of its rooms and in an extremely last-minute decision sparked from the idea of his overly-optimistic and nutty sister, he had invited that sister to come and live with him in Japan. The first time they'd have lived together in nine years.

At nine years old, on the walk to school, he and his sister were almost hit by a car. He had blacked out and found himself halfway across the street with the car barely a foot away from his fallen sister. The Spirit had taken control of his body and gotten himself out of the car's way, leaving his defenseless sister to fend for herself against a thirty-five hundred pound metal monster, it had been sheer luck that the driver in his inebriated state had swerved to the side and barely missed her.

Although he hadn't realized it was the Spirit at the time, he had sensed there was a connection to the Ring and his sister's accident, to the voice in his head, to his blackouts, and to comatose friends. He couldn't be close to them anymore, it wasn't safe. So when his father decided it was time to stop moving the Bakura family around and just travel for work on his own, Ryou had volunteered to accompany him. Because of that decision, that car crash, and that spirit, it had been nine years since he had seen or heard his sister. He didn't want the Spirit to talk to her in his place, so he had always written letters instead, but still he had missed her so. She had been his best and only friend through most of his early childhood. And now tomorrow, she would be living with him, sleeping in this new room he had spent days, no, weeks, renovating for the teenager.

He smiled, taking one more look around the room before turning off the light and moving on in his late night wanderings. He now arrived inside his once-so-familiar game room. The large Monster World game board in the center of the room was covered with a large sheet, the glass cabinets filled with custom figurines were coated in a thin film of dust, and everything was untouched since the day he and the gang played with it all. During the days that the Spirits were here, through Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, and everything else, the whole world was in a Duel Monsters craze, and the King of Games and his friends were no exception. Of course Ryou himself liked the game as much as the next teenager, but as for him, Ryou always preferred his good and familiar Monster World. It was exciting and reliable and was revolutionary to the world of RPG's at its inception, but outdated in comparison to Kaiba's holographic additions to Duel Monsters. Due to this and the Spirit's constant control and affinity for dueling, Ryou's activity in the game vanished.

Ryou roamed around the room, coming across the desk he often used to make figurines. There was one still there, halfway complete and the image he modeled it after still fresh in his mind. It was a Dark Thief NPC he had created to add to the collection of bosses in his game, to Dark Master Zorc's army to make the game more difficult for him. He had yet to add hair or facial features to the figurine, all that had been designed were his red and white robes and shoes, tanned skin, and intimidating muscles.

Without thinking, Ryou found himself sitting down at the desk and mechanically unpacking his art supplies. He pulled out a small block of wood and began carving the sharp edges of the mop of long hair he saw in his mind. He was a bit rusty at first, having not whittled a character for three years, but soon found himself in the swing of it once more. In a flurry of wood shavings, airbrushing, and wood glue the hair was complete and attached. Next were the facial details. He wielded the fine tip paintbrush with a familiar precision. Images of an Ancient Egyptian thief he had never seen even in his dreams flooded his mind- cold, merciless violet eyes, a double-crossed scar under the right eye, and a large wolfish grin that both warmed and chilled the heart with its confidence. Once he finished the detail, he put it in front of a small fan to dry and pulled up his computer to formulize a custom barcode for the figure in order to make the character compatible with the system. As he came across the last algorithm, the one to decide whether the character was playable or not, he found himself pausing. The character was originally intended to be an NPC, an antagonist, but now Ryou wasn't so sure. He was so comfortable with the figure, so enamored. He couldn't help smiling at it every time he looked at it. It wasn't the most ornate or prideful figure he had made by any means, but yet he felt so proud of it. Maybe he could play it, but he'd never played the villain side before…

_"I've decided to keep you as my host forever!"_

_ Then why did you leave?_

"I had a goal my dear landlord."

Ryou blinked. That wasn't a memory, the Spirit had never told him that, and what more he had _**heard **_it with his very own ears. He looked around, searching for someone else in the room.

_Y-yes well, I had goals and dreams too._

"Yes but I granted those wishes did I not?"

_You did not! You twisted my words around! You hurt my friends! My-my sister!_

"You really are ignorant aren't you? I suppose it came from running around with that Pharaoh and his little cheerleaders all this time. They infected your views and made you close-minded. I only thought of _**your**_ happiness!"

"LIAR!" Ryou screamed, slamming his fists on the desk.

He was panting from his outburst, the voice was gone, and he was alone. He glanced down at the figure… which had fallen on its side while still wet with paint!

"Oh! Oh no!" he hurried to pick it back up and set it down on its base gently.

_W-what was that? A hallucination? A memory? The topic was familiar but, we never said those things to each other. We hardly said anything to each other, ever. I don't even know what he looks like…_

He was brought back to his computer, right, the algorithm. He stared at the screen once again. NPC, playable, NPC, playable…

…

…

…

…Playable.

He'd try something new.

He'd play a villain.

A window popped up to register the character into the Monster World Database. He submitted the custom bar code and the character appeared in 2-D on the screen. Now to enter a name…

A thief, no he was more than a mere petty thief, a thief **king**. Ryou smiled as the perfect name popped into his head.

Level 1 Human Thief.

Affiliation: Dark Lord Zorc

Name:

**Thief King Bakura.**

* * *

** A/N: I AM ALIVE! Let me tell you guys something, when you're take two honors classes, seven class total, String Orchestra, Drama, AND getting in involved with school plays, SOPHOMORE YEAR IS HARD! I'm already dreading junior year. But yes, I'm sorry I haven't been on for over a year and that my return is a new story, but when you don't get home until 9 o'clock each day, writing unfortunately falls to the backburner. But I'll be here all Summer guys! I plan to FINALLY update Road Trip Reunion, I have two more Yu-Gi-Oh stories AND a Yu Yu Hakusho story I've been absolutely DYING to write in progress and you can expect regular update AT LEAST once a week this summer! I'm making up for never updating with complete UPDATE OVERLOAD! I VIRTUAL PINKY SWEAR AND I NEVER BREAK A PINKY SWEAR! So this chapter was kind of just Mr. Exposition let's take a peek-a-boo into Ryou's dark mentality and PTSD but that's what a lot of this story is gonna have, this plot is just as central as the Ouijashipping plot and you can expect a lot of akward moments with Ryou and the real world as he gets out there and experiments! xD But Amane will appear in the next chapter and it will be quite the shock for Ryou!**

** Thanks for all your guys' patience and please Follow, Favorite and Review! One of the reasons I forget to update is because I forget I have a Fanfiction account sometimes. By the way, I will be changing my username pretty soon so don't think I've disappeared. : ) Love you all and thanks for reading!**


	2. Hey That's My Sister!

**The Host**

**Chapter 2**

**Hey That's My Sister!**

Ryou checked his watch and looked around the crowded airport nervously. _Where is she? Her plane left on time, so what's with the delay?_

"Oi Bakura," Jounouchi called, followed by Honda, "We checked the flight updates and it said the plane just arrived. Your sister should be down here at bag claim pretty soon."

"Ah, thanks. And again, thank you so much for coming with me, it means the world to me." Ryou said.

"No problem!" Honda chirped.

"Yeah really, I know what it's like to be separated from a sibling for a long time. I felt just as nervous the first time I saw Shizuka before her surgery. Of course I had also been punched in the face by Honda right before, but what can you do?" Jounouchi laughed.

"Oh my! You punched him in the face?" Ryou gasped.

"Eh, long story. Let's change the subject!" Honda said, "So what does your sister look like? I mean who are we looking for?"

"Um well to tell you the truth I'm not quite sure." Ryou laughed nervously.

"What!? You don't know what your own sister looks like?!" Jounouchi shouted.

"Well I haven't seen her in nine maybe ten years, since my father gave me the Millennium Ring. I didn't want to put her or my mother in danger so I went to live with my father and kept almost no contact with them. The only way Amane and I ever spoke was through letters so I haven't seen her or heard her voice since she was five years old." Ryou explained.

"Well isn't that helpful?" Jounouchi said sarcastically.

Ryou blushed, "Uh well, I have a picture of her, she was really young in it but there should be some resemblance right?"

He scrambled for his wallet in his back pocket and flipped it open. Honda and Jounouchi leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. The young girl in the picture looked just like a porcelain doll with her white hair curled into large, croissant-like ringlets and adorned with small custard yellow bows. Her dress, an elegant combination of velvet, lace and chiffon was the same color, with blue and white bows adorning the skirts and bodice. Her tiny black Mary Janes poked out at the bottom, showing off her white lacy stockings. But what stood out the most were her large, doe-like shining chocolate brown eyes and long curling lashes, identical to her brother's.

"She looks like a little Victorian doll." Jounouchi breathed.

"So cute." Honda mumbled.

Ryou beamed with pride at the innocent beauty of his younger sister, "We had just moved to London in this picture, so okaa-san got really into all the Victorian and Edwardian clothes. Still, those clothes really did suit her personality. I can't wait to see the lovely girl my baby sister's become."

"Us too!" Jounouchi and Honda said.

"Onii-chan!"

Ryou turned happily and gasped in excitement-turned-mortification, "Ama-gah!"

"NOT THAT!" all three thought in unison as they turned to complete stone in shock.

Amane ran up to the group of boys her hair in a messy bun, a pair of ray bans placed in the thick fringe, similar to Ryou's that framed her eyes and barely clad in a white, cropped, strapless bustier top, high-waist dark blue short shorts, an open denim vest, and a pair of tan-suede, five-inch, lace-up ankle boots. She leaped onto Ryou throwing her arms around his neck and legs around his waist, immediately making him extremely uncomfortable with their once innocent greeting ritual.

"I've missed you so much nii-chan!" she squealed, giving him a large kiss on the cheek and instantly wiping the lip gloss stain off with her thumb.

"M-m-me too."

She immediately noticed her brother's stiffness and resistance to hug her. She got down and looked up at him with the puppy-dog eyes that had melted his heart time and time again since diaper days.

"What's wrong nii-chan? Aren't you happy to see me?" she whimpered.

"Of course I'm happy to see you! Just…not this much of you."

She raised an eyebrow, "Huh?"

"For starters button up this vest! Everyone can see your… dirty pillows." He stuttered, fiddling to quickly button her vest up to her neck.

"Oh come one nii-chan! Everyone dresses like this back in Florida… And don't you quote Stephen King at me!" she groaned.

"Honda-kun, Jounouchi-kun, give me a jack-," he stopped as he glanced at the two staring slack-jawed at Amane, "Hey that's my baby sister!"

The two immediately snapped out of their stupor in a fluster, earning a giggle from Amane, "Nii-chan, it's like a hundred degrees out right now, you buttoned up the vest; I'm fine."

Ryou knit his brows in inner-debate. Amane laughed and through an arm lovingly around his waist, "Come on nii-chan let's go get my bags."

He gave up and went along with his sister to baggage claim; he knew she had to grow up at some point, but that drastic change had given him some serious whiplash.

"So care to introduce me to the men who'll be carrying my luggage?" she asked.

"What makes you think I'm not carrying it?" Ryou replied. She raised an eye brow and nodded her head at his noodle arms around her waist.

"Heh heh, good point, these are two of my friends from high school and soon-to-be college classmates Honda Hiroto and Katsuya Jounouchi." He answered.

"Oooh! College classmates?! You two must be really smart!" she boasted.

Jounouchi puffed out his chest in male pride, "Well I don't usually like to brag but I was ranked two-hundred and seven out of our graduating class."

"Jounouchi, our class had two hundred and ten students." Honda sweat-dropped.

"Exactly! I wasn't two-oh-ten!" Jounouchi said, grabbing two bags off the carousel and Honda grabbed another three, "Man you got a lot of stuff.

"Hey you need a lot moving to a new country. But wow, two-oh-seven and got into Tokyo U? You must have crammed like hell to pass that entrance exam." Amane said in disbelief, grabbing her final duffel bag and throwing it over her shoulder.

Ryou scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "Well about that, I actually didn't get into Tokyo U."

Amane stopped dead in her tracks, "What?! But you're a genius! You've been top of your class since kindergarten, what happened?!"

"Well, life happened; I became a victim of circumstances as they say. I had to take on some unasked for responsibilities and had to prioritize my life. Going to school and studying for exams wasn't exactly an option at the time. It's a miracle I didn't have to repeat the year to be honest." He explained.

"Well what circumstances?" Amane demanded.

Ryou bit his lip, not sure what to say. It had been a month since the Spirit of the Millennium Ring had left, but it still felt so raw to think about, let alone talk about, especially after last night…

Jounouchi noticed his albino friend's hesitance and swooped for the heroic rescue, "Hey that security guard guy is giving us a dirty look; we should probably get out of the airport now that we have your bags, Bakura-chan."

"Yeah," Honda piped in, picking up on feel of the room, "You've had a long flight; you guys shouldn't be getting into a serious conversation so soon. Let's go get some lunch!"

"O-okay." She agreed hesitantly, giving her brother one more worried look.

Ryou rubbed her shoulder reassuringly, "It's okay imouto, the point is that I'm okay now, and that I'm just so happy that you're here."

Amane smiled and nuzzled closer into her brother's side, giving in to his tender, soothing voice, "Hmm, alright nii-chan. If you insist, I'll drop it for now."

He smiled back and led her out of the airport building, "Thank you, imouto."

xXx

"I-is that a clump of Top Ramen… covered in chocolate sauce, cream cheese frosting and… vegetables?" Amane asked in disgust as she watched Ryou drop bits of mocha into the big food clump sizzling on the hotplate in the middle of the table, "Gah! You're adding more to it?!"

Her companions laughed at her horror.

"What, you've never heard of okonomiyaki?" Jounouchi asked, his mouth watering as Ryou sprinkled ginger on the top.

"Umm, bless you?"

Honda and Jounouchi raised their eyebrows at her.

Ryou laughed as he moved the okonomiyaki around the hotplate with the spatula, "Guys she hasn't lived in Japan since she was two years old. The extent of her Japanese cuisine knowledge is California Rolls."

"Yeah, yeah, so I'm the most American Japanese here, you never answered me, what the hell is that thing?" Amane demanded.

"It's a Japanese pizza Amane, really similar to a vegetable pancake or an omelet. And those aren't noodles like in… top ramen, they're actually grated nagaimo." Ryou explained.

"Okonomiyaki with noodles underneath is modanyaki." Honda piped in.

"That's right!" Ryou praised, cutting a large slice and dropping it onto Honda's plate, "The servers give us a bunch of different ingredients and we get to make it the way we want with those ingredients."

"Well what are those sauces and green stuff on top of it?" Amane asked as a slice was plopped onto her plate.

"Otafuku sauce, seaweed flakes, bonito flakes, Japanese mayonnaise, and pickled Ginger." He answered, serving a slice to the drooling Jounouchi and then himself, "Try it!"

Amane brought a small bite up to her lips hesitantly, testing the taste with a small sniff. It smelled like a sweet omelet, she was almost overwhelmed by the flavors enwrapping her nose. She looked to Honda and Jounouchi who were already almost done with their servings and pushing bowls of raw ingredients to Ryou for the next batch. But her brother simply sat their patiently, waiting to take a bite until after he saw her reaction.

She closed her eyes tight and shoved the bite into her mouth, immediately experiencing whiplash from the multitude of flavors that hit her like a machinegun all at once. Her eyes widened, who knew food could be this flavorful?! She immediately joined Honda and Jounouchi in scarfing down her plateful like no tomorrow.

"Ith thdere bacon in hare?!" she asked, mouth full with three-going on four bites of the pizza.

Ryou smiled, "No it's thin pork belly, pretty similar thought right?"

Amane nodded her head, gulping down her overflowing mouthful only to gasp for breath and shovel in more food to inhale. "Dis food is amathing! Oh! Dat remindths meh. Ryou, I hab a presthent por you!"

"Oh you do? Would you care to swallow your food first?" Ryou asked teasingly.

Amane nodded quickly, finishing her bite. "It's in my carry-on in the car; could I have the keys to get it?"

"Of course." He said, pulling the keys from his pants pocket and handing them to her.

The young girl skipped off happily and Ryou immediately found that he had to keep himself from attacking every male (and some females) in the restaurant for the way they were staring at his baby sister's retreating form with such lust filled eyes.

He groaned, dropping his head on the table, "Oh this is terrible. I love her so much, and I'm so happy she's here, but, b-but… MY BABY SISTER IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE THOSE KINDS OF CURVES!"

"I don't think any teenage girl is supposed to have those kinds of curves, except for maybe Mai Kujaku, she probably did. Actually now that I think about it, those two would probably get along pretty well." Honda laughed, "They could man-eat together."

Ryou sent him a spine-chillingly murderous glare rivaling that of the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, "Don't you ever say that again."

Honda laughed, holding up his hands defensively, "Well what do you expect Bakura? Your quite the looker for a guy too ya' know. The whole school's female population couldn't keep their hands off you. It must be a genetic thing."

"Yeah," Jounouchi agreed, "I mean what does your mom look like?"

The whitette immediately pulled out his wallet, shifting past the picture of Amane and the group shot of him and the gang in front of the Sphinx to pull out an old family portrait. His goofy, bespectacled father stood holding an infant Amane who even back then had those large, photogenic eyes. A five your old Ryou stood there happy and laughing, one arm shyly pulling down his button-up shirt and the other grabbing onto his mother's blouse, who kneeled sweetly-smiling next to him. Honda and Jounouchi blinked at the picture.

"What? What's wrong?" asked Ryou.

"Dude, your mom's a total milf." Jounouchi said, staring at the picture in awe.

The three sat there in dead silence for a minute before Ryou practically tackled him shouting, "I'll kill you!"

"I'm back!" Amane announced, halting the battle and forcing the boys to return to normal for appearance sake.

On the inside however, Ryou was ready to rip the blonde's head off and the dynamic duo were practically crying from held in laughter.

Amane stood facing her brother, the present hidden behind her back. "Nii-chan, before coming to Japan, I went back to Nice and stayed with Sylvie's family for Spring Break, and before leaving I made sure to pick up a certain something homemade by her mom. Happy Graduation Ryou!"

Ryou gasped, his homicidal thoughts from earlier instantly forgotten as Amane pulled around a Tupperware of the homemade creampuffs he so often gorged on when they were living in France. "Amane! Do you know how hard it is to find good cream puffs in Japan?! And to think you brought me Suzette's homemade ones- oh this is amazing!"

He leaped up and threw his arms around her, practically tearing up from happiness.

Amane giggled and returned the embrace, "I'm so glad you like it! The truth is that I'm just so happy to have my big brother back. When you left I thought it was because of something I did, I thought you hated me. Your letters proved otherwise but it still hurt that you were gone. I know you have your reasons and I really hope you'll tell me someday, but that's all in the past, and I'm just so glad to have my best friend now."

Ryou instantly felt a pang of guilt slice through his chest. Of course he did leave because of her, but not because he hated her, not by a long shot. He just wanted to protect her. He was her older brother he had to. However that's not where the guilt came from. She was right, it was all in the past, the Spirit was gone and life was moving on. That was great! Everything would be back to normal now, maybe even better! But still, he felt guilty and selfish because…

…because he wasn't sure if he wanted that or not.

**A/N: Woohoo! Another chapter. So I did not get nearly as many reviews as I wanted…. I got one…. One that all it said was "I like it."….. Well I'm glad. Lol I'm hoping adding more chapters will increase the reviews since that last one was quite a lot of angst and exposition. But here we get to actually meet Amane! : ) Unfortunately Yami Marik isn't gonna be here for at least another chapter or two, but don't worry my lovely readers, he's coming as fast as he can! **

**Oh and guess who's going to AnimeExpo this weekend and going to a LittleKuriboh panel?! THIS GAL! So yes I expect lots of notifications when I get back! Oh, and if you ever get the chance, try okonomyaki, it's the freaking bomb!**

**I love you all, but please take the time to favorite, follow, and review after reading! It's what give me the drive to keep writing! Until next time!**


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